A mere three-and-a-half years in the past, artist Heather Chontos bought—sight unseen—a run-down 18th-century farmhouse in southwest France. Throughout a 12 months of lockdown, utilizing discovered and classic supplies, Heather solely refashioned the place as her personal, reworking it Bloomsbury fashion into an extension of her artwork.
For Heather, who grew up in Upstate NY, the largest enchantment of the property was the truth that it got here with a Seventeenth-century stone barn twice as huge as the home: a dream studio. We not too long ago featured Heather’s residing quarters; we’re returning now to tour her monumental inventive area.
We needed to act quick: Heather isn’t somebody who stays put. After nonstop work perfecting the property—the primary she’s ever owned—Heather says she’s prepared for her subsequent huge venture: “I really feel like I completed my story right here and I must create a brand new story. It’s so simple as that.” Final March, Heather introduced on Instagram (@hchontos) that she was able to promote her compound on to somebody who will find it irresistible as is, severe queries solely. She fielded 150 responses and the place ended up going to a pal, a fellow artist Heather “met on a barstool in Brooklyn 20 years in the past,” who will share it together with his father.
Heather and her 15 12 months outdated daughter, in the meantime, are in residence a bit longer—actual property offers in France require months of paperwork—they usually welcomed us again.
Pictures by Heather Chontos (@hchontos), except famous.
Heather planted lavender, herbs galore, squash, radishes, and pumpkins (“I eat pumpkin religiously”), wisteria (that’s what’s rising on the arbors), and bay leaf, plum, apricot, mimosa, olive, and cypress bushes —”I simply needed to see what would develop.” She employed a standard stone mason, a neighbor who’s now retired, to put in the barn home windows: “It required old-school structural work, so wonderful to look at. The window frames are created from reduce stone; the oak on the high are outdated beams from the barn.”